


Philadelphia

by sergeant_angel



Series: All Roads Lead to Rome [1]
Category: Marvel, Young Avengers
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-27
Updated: 2016-06-27
Packaged: 2018-07-18 13:03:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7316221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sergeant_angel/pseuds/sergeant_angel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>William Kaplan was always a tenacious child (and though he didn't always know it, so was his twin, Thomas)<br/>(a side story from the <i>Riptide</i> universe)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Philadelphia

**Author's Note:**

> my hand slipped

William "Billy" Kaplan was a tenacious child. 

(or so the stories his mother told went)

When he was five, he managed to unlock three separate locks, including the chain, on the door of their apartment, his chubby little legs carrying him down three flights of stairs, to rescue a box full of puppies he'd seen in an alley earlier that day. 

When he was eight, he tried to build a submarine, despite not yet knowing how to swim.

When he was twelve, he made a small Hanukkah basket with gifts and food to give all of the elderly residents of their building.

And when he was sixteen, he managed to puzzle, call, cajole, and, on occasion, bully, his way into his adoption records to find that he had a twin.

(okay, he used Facebook. _Then_ came the calling, cajoling, et cetera)

As it turned out, he and his brother (his _twin_ brother) were some of the last children adopted out of Doomstadt before the Latverian government collapsed under the weight of its very own god-king.

He's excited. A brother!

Sure, the guy-Thomas, the records say-couldn't look more different than Billy if he tried. 

And where Billy had been extremely fortunate in his adoptive parents, his brother hadn't-the young couple that had adopted him, dead in a car accident, no next of kin. Thomas shuffled from foster home to foster home. It made Billy  _ache_ that his brother didn't know the life Billy did, made him wish he could go back in time and somehow make sure they wound up together with the Kaplans.

But he can't rewrite history. He can't change things like that.

All he can do is let his brother know he exists, and that he has a family. 

If he wants it.

* * *

The first time Billy meets his brother is when he posts bail. 

Billy has tried to remain positive, but he's fairly certain Thomas is the evil twin everyone talks about.

Billy isn't sure he can handle being the good twin. Last week he and some kid (Eli, his name is Eli, and Eli had caught Billy doing some very hard to explain things, okay? _Very hard to explain type things_ ) had crashed some poor woman's wedding.

And sure, it was being held up by some mob looking guys, and yeah, he and Eli (Patriot, in the field. Billy doesn't have a codename yet, but Eli insists he needs one) are more equipped to deal with that sort of thing than most kids their age, but they'd messed up and one of the bridesmaids had wound up saving  _them_.

(it's Kate Bishop, her sister's wedding has been all over the society pages and _yes_ Billy  _enjoys_ gossip in print,  _that's not a crime_ )

But. 

The point is.

Billy can't be the Good Twin, but it looks like he is. 

"So," his brother says once the cuffs are off. "Who are you, exactly?"

"I'm your brother," Billy stammers. "Uh. Twin."

"Hah! Right. Tell me another."

"No, seriously. I have our birth record right here," Billy pulls a carefully folded piece of paper out of his bag. "Well, it's a copy, technically. A fax. And there are other records to corroborate this, I just didn't think it was a good idea to carry them around in my backpack, just in case..." he trails off.

"In case what?"

"Well, something could happen. I could get mugged. Or. Um."  _Or Eli could call and say we need to save someone, he knows too much about this secret mission type stuff for someone our age, should I be worried--_

"I'm Billy, by the way," Billy holds out his hand to shake; he brother shoves past him. "And you're Thomas, right?"

"Tommy. Call me Tommy."

Billy jogs to catch up with his brother; this isn't exactly how he'd anticipated this meeting going.

"Hey, wait up!"

His twin laughs at that, walking backwards to draw even to Billy. "Dude, what do you want? Thanks for posting bail? A wedgie? A noogie? Us to try and see if we can feel each other's pain, or that crap? No thanks, kid."

"That's wrong."

Billy's words draw Tommy up short, his head snapping back. "What?"

"You're wrong. You can't call me kid. I'm older than you. By, ah. Twelve whole minutes. You were kinda pokey coming out, I guess."

For some reason, this makes Tommy laughs so hard he's doubled up, crying. "No kidding," he says, once he's got his breath back. "So what's your thing? Is it speed, too?"

Billy feels a strange hollowness, in his stomach and his heart, and he's not sure if it's good or bad.

"What thing?"

"Oh, come on, man," Tommy grins at him for a split second before the smile fades. "Yeah, should have figured I was the freak of the family."

"Oh," Billy is suddenly and inexplicably emboldened, a boldness he's been feeling more and more lately. "Weird like this?"  He waves his hand and tendrils of blue light surround his arm, and he waves his hand at the squad car next to them, lifting it three feet into the air before setting it back with a soft  _thump_. "I'm working on it," he says, suddenly embarrassed, as he is after most stupidly reckless things. "I mean, it's not that impressive right now, but if I practice--"

Tommy grins at him, a  _real_ grin, before vanishing, a discarded newspaper tossing in the wind, before Billy feels a tap between his shoulderblades. 

"Boo," Tommy says. 

"What did--how did--"

"Must run in the family, big bro," Tommy slings his arm over Billy's shoulder. "Weirdness."

"Uh, excuse you, little brother. I am weird. You're just fast."

"Just fast?  _Just_ fast? How--how--" Tommy looks about to explode.

"Relax," Billy holds up his hand, chuckles. He looks back to the police station behind them. "So, uh. Have you ever thought about not committing crime?"

"Please," Tommy rolls his eyes. "You sound like my parole officer."

"Cause I have this friend, and we try to...stop? Crime?"

"Why are you saying that like it's a question? What, have you been recruited to the CIA's kiddie pool?"

"Well, we're sort of. Vigilantes?"

"So you commit crime to stop crime?" Tommy stops, tilts his head as if considering it. "I would be willing to discuss this over waffles."

It might possibly be the best breakfast either of them have ever had.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I was writing things for _Riptide_ when all of the sudden I was struck with Minimoff feels and the need to explore Billy and Tommy's relationship before they started Avengering, taking into account their biological twin-ness in this 'verse.  
>  I'm fairly certain adoption records would be harder to obtain, but *waves hands*  
> Also, Billy can post bail because he is a saver, not a spender.  
> I wrote this in...roughly an hour. So, unbeta'ed, not proofread, just a lil prezzie from me to you.


End file.
